The deliverance of Jerusalem,by E. W. G. Masterman ...

The DELIVERANCE
OF JERUSALEM

By E. W. G. MASTERMAN, M. D., F. R. C S. '

Author of ^'Studies in Galilee" and Hon. Gen. Sec.
of the Palestine Exploration Fund in Palestine

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY ;; Publishers ;; New York

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THE DELIVERANCE

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THE DELIVERANCE
OF JERUSALEM

BY

E. W. G. MASTERMAN, M.D., F.R.C.S,

AUTHOR OF " STUDIES IN GALILEE," AND HON. GEN.

SEC. OF THE PALESTINE EXPLORATION

FUND IN PALESTINE

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

MCMXVIII

r^4

Digitized by tine Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

Lyrasis IVIembers and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/deliveranceofjerOOmast

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction -_.-_- v

I The Beginning of the War - - - I

II Beersheba ------ 6

III Gaza lo

IV. > The Plains of Philistia - - - 13

y i The Cities of the Middle Maritime Plain 20

VI 'cThe British Campaign - - - 24

VII Advance on Jerusalem - - - - 31

VIII Modern Jerusalem - - - - 38

IX The Future of Palestine - - - 48

"V

INTRODUCTION

IN the summer of 19 14 the position of things In
Palestine was entirely peaceful, and certainly
among the English, American and French any icea
that things could ever come to hostility between them-
selves and the Germans and Austrlans, or even more
with the Turks, would have seemed preposterous.
The members of the different religious communities
were in friendly co-operation, and at public gatherings
connected with either Mission Schools or Hospitals,
members of each community attended as a matter of
course. The meetings or excavations of the P.E.F.,
the lectures of the German Biblical Archaeological
Society, of the American Archaeological Society, and
of the Dominican Fathers of the French University of
St. Etienne were attended by the studious of the vari-
ous communities as a matter of course, and new
discoveries and points of view were shared by all.

Shortly before the war an excellent "International
Health Bureau" was started under German stimulus
and connected with the Hamburg School of Tropical
Medicine. Representatives of all the leading Powers
co-operated to make it a success, and the director, a
German Professor, made every effort to obtain British
official support. At the German schools at Jerusalem
and Beirut, British and American children attended
for years and seemed to be welcomed by the head
teachers with friendliness.

vi THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

With regard to the native people of the land the
Syrian people have by tradition been uniformly friend-
ly to the British, French and Americans. Perhaps in
Palestine, on the whole, the British were the most
looked to; In Syria proper, e.g., Beirut, Damascus
and the Lebanon, the French and Americans. Un-
questionably, in spite of (or perhaps partly because
of) all the pomp and show of the Kaiser's visit to
Pulestine^ — ^well calculated to Impress the Oriental
mind — the' mass of the people remained decidedly
pro-British, and to a considerable extent even anti-
German, except among the circle who had had the
benefit of their excellent Institutions. The mere fact
that the German Government was known to be so
intimate with the Turks of Constantinople only bred
suspicion of them in the minds of the people.

It must never be forgotten that the Syrian people
are not Turks either ethnologically, linguistically, or
in character and temperament. The Turks — as far
as the original stock goes — are all of Turanian origin;
the Syrians are Semites, at least predominantly, with a
mixture of Greek and other strains. As regards lan-
guage, the language of the Turks, though written In
Arabic characters. Is In every way distinct from
Arabic. Few Syrians outside Government circles in
Palestine know Turkish, and their native language
l(Arabic), of which they are justly proud, Is banned
by the Government who transact all their business — or
did before the war — In Turkish or French. Students
at the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut wishing to
get their government diplomas in medicine or phar-
macy, were not allowed to present themselves for
examination In their own language, but In Turkish or
French. All legal documents had to be drawn up in

INTRODUCTION vii

Turkish. The Syrian having legal business had to
engage an interpreter just as if he were a foreigner.
The Turk never indeed ceased to treat the Syrians as a
vanquished people, and the land as a conquered one.

The Governors sent from Constantinople were
almost without exception Turks, and knew only Turk-
ish or French, sometimes indeed only the former.
Their period of appointment was precarious and
always short, and the condition of obtaining and re-
taining their appointment was that of replenishing the
coffers at Stamboul. As he had to bribe to get his
appointment, he naturally had to make money by
bribes, and in a descending scale every official from
the highest to the lowest had to get and keep his posi-
tion by bribes. For the benefit of the land little or no
money was spent, and when an absolutely necessary
work had to be undertaken, for example, construction
of a road, only a fraction of the money gathered for
that work was spent on that purpose, the rest went ta
the officials. It Is not wonderful that such a system
was detested, and nothing but a military domination,
helped by the feeling of the Moslems that loyalty to
Islam forbade any possible Christian control from
outside, kept the people from rebellion. Perhaps one
may add that their state of chronic poverty and over-
work prevented them from any initiation of schemes
for better things.

Nevertheless, when the young Turks first got con-
trol and the "constitution" or harriyeh (freedom)
was established, the Syrians thought the day of better
things had come. The new era was welcomed amidst
scenes of the wildest enthusiasm and none extolled the
change more than the Christians and Jews, who had
suffered most. Had the Turks really had the true

viii THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

elements of a spirit of just administration, they might
before this have made Syria and Palestine happy and
prosperous provinces. The first heavy blow was when
the Christians and Jews (hitherto exempt) were
forced into military service, which for them, more
accustomed to better social conditions, was a real hard-
ship; yet many Syrian Christians and Jews, carried
away by the ideal of a new era of liberty, gladly went
to do their part. At this time many of the Jewish
colonists became thoroughly Turcophlle (in a good
sense) and in the Balkan wars those who had hoped
for better days were discouraged and saddened at
Turkish misfortunes.

But soon It dawned upon all that they had but
changed an ignorant and fanatic despot for a set of
clever knaves who, having seized the government,
seemed to have no Interest in anything but political
adventures at Constantinople or their personal advan-
tage. Many migrated to Egypt and yearning hopes
were freely expressed that France or England would
do something to lift the darkening shadows from the
land. The British Government had all along made it
known that they had no desire for any change that
would lead to dismemberment of the Turkish Empire,
and all expressions of hope that England would inter-
vene were finally damped. Undoubtedly, it was the
wish of British Government circles to do nothing to
break up the Empire or annex any part of it. At the
beginning of the war with Germany, the British
Ambassador was Instructed to Inform the Turkish
Government that It would guarantee the integrity of
the Turkish Empire at the end of the war If Turkey
would remain neutral. There Is no shadow of doubt
that had the mass of people In Turkey been consulted,

INTRODUCTION ix

they would have given a vote by an immense majority
against the war. Unfortunately, her rulers, stimu-
lated by promises of the restoration of lost lands,
especially Egypt — which had never been really hers
for a century — and doubtless compensated more per-
sonally in the usual oriental method, determined to
bring their resources to the help of Germany, who,
they felt sure, would soon prove the winning side.

THE DELIVERANCE
OF JERUSALEM

CHAPTER I

The Beginning of the War

FROM the moment of Germany's invasion of Bel-
glum Turkey began to mobilise, but the poor
Ignorant soldiers had little idea indeed for what
purpose. The interval between mobilisation and dec-
laration of war with the Allies was utilised by the
resident official Germans and young Turks in a strong
pro-German propaganda, and the religious feelings of
the Moslems were worked up by the statement, freely
distributed In Arabic circulars, that Germans were not
Christians like the French or English, but followers of
the Prophet Mohammed, and passages from the
Koran were quoted prophesying the coming of the
Kaiser as the Saviour of Islam. The Kaiser himself
was publicly prayed for in the Mosques as "Haji
Wilhelm," the title Haji being one applied only, as a
rule, to a Moslem. Telegrams printed in Arabic were
circulated giving accounts of endless German victories.
Doubtless, It must be admitted, the fact that Russia
was once again In arms against Turkey did much to
reconcile the Syrians towards the war.

A very partially dganised Army of some 150,000
soldiers — chiefly Syrians — was collected around Beer-

1

2 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

sheba and all was excitement over the expected easy
conquest of Egypt.

Then came the fiasco In 19 15 of the first attack on
the Suez Canal, when 20,000 Turks were easily driven
back, losing their guns and a couple of thousand pris-
oners. This disaster, when the truth was known — it
was hidden for a time by lying Turkish official re-
ports— caused such a revulsion among the people of
the land that a general massacre of the Germans was
freely talked about. Had the Allies been in a position
at that moment to land a force on the coast, probably
the whole country would have rallied to them.

Meanwhile the state of the land was rapidly going
from worse to worse. The food all over the land was
commandeered for the armies, even the small stores
which people in the villages had saved to carry them
through the winter months were taken from them, so
that starvation occurred in many districts. Typhus
and cholera played havoc through the land. Locusts,
in incredible numbers, ravished the land from end
to end: a plague on a scale which had never before
occurred within living memory. Man power had all
been requisitioned for the armies, and trade and busi-
ness were brought to a standstill. Sad to say, to
provide fuel for the rapidly increasing railway traffic
required by the military authorities, the scanty trees of
Palestine, Including even beautiful olive groves, were
widely destroyed.

Although reports of the awful state of things came
through, it was impossible to send adequate help, and
monies forwarded to Palestine, If delivered at all,
were so diminished in amount before delivery, as to
make it seem almost a waste to send them.

Meanwhile the Turks and Germans were organis-

THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR 3

ing fresh attacks on Egypt, and for that purpose
constructing military roads and railways. The rail-
way through central Palestine, which before the war
had only reached Samaria, was pushed southward to
Beersheba and into the desert to el Auja; another
branch from el Tineh station in the Philistine Plain
was carried south-eastward almost to Gaza. The
Jaffa-Jerusalem railway, after its linking up with the
central line, was disconnected with Jaffa by taking up
the rails for some miles. New roads were made, the
chief of which ran southwards from Jerusalem
through Hebron to Beersheba and beyond, from
Jerusalem to Aman east of the Jordan, and also from
Jkka via Sxfed to Damascus.

Another attack on Egypt in 191 6 was equally dis-
astrous for the Turks. Indeed, it is hardly possible to
believe that the German military authorities seriously
believed that such an expedition could have had
favourable results, but they probably aimed at immo-
bilising in Egypt forces which otherwise would be used
against them elsewhere, and In this it must be admitted
they succeeded.

At length in the Spring of 19 17, General Sir Archi-
bald Murray, whose Army had fought Its way to el
Katia, to el Arish and was collected at Wady Ghusseh,
made an attack upon Gaza, which, although carried
out with great heroism, appears to have failed chiefly
through insufficient forces and guns. The first attack
was made on March 26th, when the troops were
delayed by fog and great difficulties with the water
supply. The second attack, begun on April 17th,
appears to have fallen just short of a success and was
not pushed home on account of the great strength of
the enemy's positions and the Inevitable great losses

4 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

that would have ensued. In Jerusalem there was at
the time a general expectation that the British would
certainly be shortly through, and preparations were
nearly complete for evacuating Jerusalem when, to the
relief of the Governor, Jamal Pasha, the British
withdrew.

Then came the slow months of preparation for an
advance which should be, It was purposed, overpower-
ing. Slowly the British Army organised a vast system
of supply: water by means of pipes was brought from
Egypt, and material of all possible kinds poured in by
means of the railway they had constructed.

The attack In April had, unfortunately, come at
the very end of the rainy season, and for six months
it was impossible to count on any fresh rain. The
Army all those long and trying six months were sit-
uated in a most difficult position. A region almost
waterless, a sultry, almost tropical climate, and a long
extended desert front from Gaza to Beersheba on the
general line of the dry torrent bed known as Wady
Ghuzzeh. The whole of the supplies had to come by
a light railway over what had been but a few months
before an almost deserted desert road through sand
hills. Behind the greater part of our line lay a per-
fectly arid, waterless desert — to all intents uninhabita-
ble. At the rear of the enemy lay miles and miles of
green fields with abundant corn and barley. Around
Gaza was a rich oasis with palm trees and olives and
fruit trees, and all the resources of Palestine to draw
upon at their hand. The dominating hills or "tells"
iwere in the hands of the Turks and heavily fortified.

By this time the Turks were furnished with great
numbers of heavy guns and the very latest aeroplanes.
Their forces were largely officered by Germans and

THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR 5

Austrlans. Abundant ammunition was accumulated,
and by means of their roads and railways their com-
munications behind their lines were fully provided for.
The chaotic confusion which seems to have attended
their first advance had given way under German super-
vision to higher organisation, and holding, as they did,
all the natural water supply in the district, vast tracts
of corn-growing land for fodder and for food, internal
communications by roads and railways, as well as very
adequate numbers of highly trained and undoubtedly
extremely brave soldiers, it is no wonder that they had
come to consider their position as impregnable.

CHAPTER II

Beersheba

AT the threshold of the British advance into Pales-
tine lay two towns that have been through historic
times the gates between Egypt and the East. They
are Beersheba and Gaza. Beersheba, or as the modern
Arabs call it Bir-es-saha, has durmg this present war
sprung into life and notoriety after a sleep', of centuries.

Famous as a sacred shrine in the days of Abraham
(Gen. xxi. 33), and associated with incidents in the
life of Hagar (Gen. xxi. 17), Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 24),
Jacob (Gen. xlvi. 2), and Elijah (i Kings xix. 5),
Beersheba is perhaps most familiar to us as the ex-
treme southern town of Canaan. From "Dan to
Beersheba," or from "Beersheba to Dan," are con-
stantly recurring phrases in the Bible. South and east
of Beersheba the land is little but a wilderness ; north-
ward and north-westwards we pass into districts which
in the spring are great corn and pasture lands.

Beersheba itself occupies a fertile, though treeless,
expanse on the course of a great valley, which after
running south from Hebron as the Wady el-Khalil
here turns westwards under the name of JVady es-Srba,
and still further west deepens into the Wady Ghuzzeh
or the Valley of Gaza. The original site of the town
of Beersheba (or Sheba) of Old Testament times was
upon a lofty hill some three miles east of the present
town. This hill is known as Tell es-Saba, and upon
it we have the superimposed remains of successive
occupations from the Seleucid period backwards

6

BEERSHEBA 7

through Hebrew times to still earliet ages. Deposits
of pottery enable archaeologists to infer that this site
was occupied altogether for considerably over a thou-
sand years. Like all these ancient sites, it is a place of
great natural strength.

After the Seleucid period a new town was built on
the lower and better watered ground where the mod-
ern buildings now are; the soil here is richly strewn
with Roman and Byzantine remains, among which the
foundations of two Byzantine churches and several
interesting inscriptions on slabs of stone have been
recovered. All this civilisation decayed after the Arab
conquest, and the site was utterly deserted — except by
wandering Bedouin — until very recent years. The
adventurous tourist who wandered far from the settled
country did so at some considerable risk, and the ac-
counts of the discovery there by Professor George
Robinson, of Chicago, of seven choked up wells was
read with great interest when published a few years
ago. (See " Biblical World " XVII., 24.7 f.) It may
be mentioned, however, that Beersheba does not
mean, as many suppose, the " Seven Wells " (actually
there are more than seven ancient wells at this site),
but most probably the " Well of the Seven," or, as
is suggested in Gen. xxi. 31, "The Well of the
Oath."

Only a few years before the outbreak of war, the
Turks decided to strengthen their southern frontier,
and at the same time civilise and subdue the wander-
ing Bedouin of this district. They cleared the wells of
rubbish and, by establishing oil-engine pumps, obtained
from them a perennial supply of good water. They
built a Serai or Government House, a mosque, a post
and telegraph office, and a Khan. Encouraged by

8 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

the security thus afforded, a number of merchants
built shops until the settled population must, before
19 14, have reached upwards of one thousand. The
houses and streets were well supplied with water, and
a number of eucalyptus trees were planted. An un-
usually enlightened Turkish Kaimakam or Governor,
who really had his heart in his work, managed to
convert this district into a little oasis of prosperity,
where shortly before there had been nothing but
desert. The small town, with its smart new red-roofed
buildings, its garrison of Turkish cavalry, and its re-
vived life, was a pleasant contrast to the stagnation,
desertion, and ruin of a few years previously.

A part of the same movement for strengthening
their frontier led the Turks to develop another ancient
site, el Aiija, several miles further south in the desert.
Here, too, they established a garrison and a market
for the Bedouin.

Since the outbreak of the war Beersheba has come
Into much greater prominence as the chief depot for
the troops and stores accumulated for the attack on
Egypt. It was strongly fortified by the Turks during
the British advance from Egypt. It was soon con-
nected up with Hebron and Jerusalem by an excellent
carriage road, which was later prolonged south to el
Auja. The southward extension of the Haifa-Damas-
cus Railway, which before the war was begun from
Afuleh, in the Plain of Esdraelon, and was Intended to
link up with the Jaffa- Jerusalem Railway at Ramleh,
was now speedily pushed on to Beersheba and beyond.
This place thus became of great strategic Importance
as the place of junction of the main road through
Central Palestine with the railway traversing the mari-
time plain.

BEERSHEBA 9

The Negeh, translated in the Bible usually as " the
South" (see Gen. xii. 9; xiii. 1-3; xx. 5, &c.), is
generally considered as beginning at Edh Dhahriyeh,
and stretches south in a series of rolling hills running
in a general direction east and west, until the actual
wilderness begins — a distance of perhaps seventy
miles. Besides Beersheba and el Atija there are im-
portant ruins, " Khalasa" (Elusa) 3.nd ^' Ruheibeh "
(Rehoboth), and probably in its palmy days — the
Byzantine period — there were between these four set-
tlements as many as 50,000 people, but it has never,
even at its best, been anything but a rather barren land.

Shortly before the war the Palestine Exploration
Fund, acting with the War OfEce, obtained permission
for a complete survey of this district in order to con-
nect up their Palestine Survey with that of Egypt.
This was done in the spring of 19 14; the maps have
not yet been published, but have been of very great
value during the war. On the edge of the Wady
Ghuzzeh, on the southern road from Gaza tO' Beer-
sheba, stands Tel Ahti Hareira, a very large mound,
partially natural, but with its side steepened artificially.
It consists of a central citadel mound and a lower part
on which once stood a town. There is a quantity of
pottery on the surface, but no excavations have yet
been made to show what ancient town stood there.
Five miles west of Beersheba, where the road crosses
Wady Abu Irgeig, are two small " tells " side by side,
known as Abu Irgeig, around which are the remains of
a large Byzantine village, the cemetery of which lies a
little to the north of the road. It is probable that there
is here also the site of a still earlier occupation. Both
these sites came Into prominence in the recent military
operations.

CHAPTER III
Gaza

GAZA, at the extreme eastern end of the Turkish
line of defence, is a city of great historic im-
portance. It has been aptly described as " the outpost
of Africa and the door of Asia." It is situated in a
veritable oasis, and is the last well-watered place in the
long desert journey from Syria to Egypt. A descrip-
tion made a few years ago of the fruitfulness of the
oasis will give some idea of modern conditions before
war had wrought much destruction.

* "Gardens of fruit-trees, olive-groves, and enclo-
sures, hedged by the prickly pear, reached our camp
from the inland side. The trees at Gaza are chiefly
date-palms, olive, sycamore-fig, carob or locust-tree,
and fig; a very handsome tamarisk reaches a height of
thirty or forty feet and has light green foliage, very
refreshing and homelike after the dull grey or lifeless
green of the desert. The olives are of enormous age.
The average height of the trees is twenty to twenty-five
or thirty feet. Old trees have often mere shells of
their trunks remaining. I measured the two largest I
saw, a few miles north of Gaza; their girth was eight-
een and twenty feet respectively at two feet from the
ground, a size which was maintained, or very nearly
so, till the trunk forked."

Amidst this plenty, the city itself is of no great
pretensions. Its population is about 40,000, of whom

* From the Paper by Mr. H. C. Hart, in the Quarterly State-
ment of the Palestine Exploration Fund, October, 1885.

10

GAZA 11

all but a thousand or so are Moslems. The people
have always been rather Egyptian in their life and
ways, and the women here and in this district dress
more like Egyptians than Syrians. The most impor-
tant building in the town is the J amia-el-Kebir or great
Mosque, which was originally a Christian Church,
built in the thirteenth century out of ancient material,
its western door is a fine specimen of Italian Gothic.
To the southeast of Gaza lies Jebel-el-Muntar, 270
feet above sea level, which is by tradition the site to
which Samson carried the gates of the Philistines.
(Judges xvi. 2.) The district round Gaza is very
fertile and great quantities of barley, transshipped
direct from the sandy seashore, two miles from the
town, to English ships, were carried annually to Eng-
land; it is said, that in 19 10 no less than 8,000 boxes
of Gaza oranges were exported to England in the
same way.

The British Army, in entering Palestine through
this town, are repeating again the events of history
extending over thousands of years. Nearly 3,600
years ago the great Thothmes III. was for some time
held up at Gaza when advancing from Egypt to con-
quer Canaan, and succeeding Egyptian Kings held this
city as the outpost of their land. In the days of the
Philistines, Gaza was one of their great cities and was
dedicated to their god " Marnas."

When Assyria held Canaan their Kings fortified
Gaza against Egypt until some centuries later, when
the position was reversed and Pharaoh Necho again
made this city an Egyptian outpost. Here Cambyses,
King of Persia, in 529 B.C., after the fall of Babylon,
was long delayed on his route to conquer Egypt. In
332 B.C. Gaza was strong enough to resist the siege of

12 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

Alexander the Great — who was here wounded — dur-
ing two whole months, but after capture it was en-
tirely destroyed. It was never, except for a very short
time under Alexander Jannaeus, in Jewish hands.
Under the Romans it flourished as a free city, out-
rivalling Damascus in prosperity, and being at one
time the most populous city in Palestine. In 635 A.D.
it fell to the arms of Abu Bekr and never fully recov-
ered its prosperity under either Crusader or Turk.

It is interesting to notice that the same historical
highway which brought to the Gates of Gaza Thoth-
mes, Rameses, Sennacherib, Cambyses, Alexander,
Pompey, Titus, Saladin, Napoleon and many generals,
has now yielded to the advance of the mixed army
under General Allenby of British, Irish, Australians,
New Zealanders, Canadians, Indians, and, in small
contingents, French and Italians.

Napoleon's army started from El Katia (where the
British Army practically started) on February 7th,
1799, reached El Arish the next day and captured the
fort on the 20th; he occupied Khan Yunis on the 22nd,
and on the 26th marched to Gaza, which surrendered,
the garrison retreating to Jaffa. From there, after
two days' rest, he resumed his march, reached Esdud
(Ashdod) on March ist and Ramleh the following
day. He captured Jaffa on March 7th and reached
Haifa on the i6th, commencing the siege of Akka on
March 1 8th, where all his plans were thwarted by the
British. His rapid and comparatively easy advance
with a force of 13,000 is one which the British might
well envy when they review the enormous preparations
which have been preliminary to their present favour-
able situation.

CHAPTER IV

The Plains of Philistia

N their march northward the British troops have
crossed the Plains of Philistia, which compose the
southern section of the stretch of Maritime Plain
which lies between the mountains and the sea along
almost the whole of Palestine.

There is no section of this plain more fertile and
none probably more naturally suitable for a battlefield
and more used as such In the past. Along the whole
seaboard lies a strip of yellow sand, blown up by the
wind Into great dunes-, In some places coming Inland
to a width of two and a half miles, and ever slowly
but steadily encroaching upon the fertile lands. In a
few places, as at Askelon, the strip of sand dunes be-
comes narrow, but towards Gaza they are two miles
wide and just south of Jaffa even wider. The plain
inland from this consists of rolling downs, and It Is
only near the coast that It can be described as flat.
The soil Is brown but Intersected with little gullies In
the rich alluvial soil deposit in which the underlying
shingle Is exposed. They are crossed by three great
wadies similar to the Wady Ghuzzeh, but not so
deeply worn, which run from the Western mountains
to the sea. During the greater part of the year,
except near their mouths, these wadies are deep rents
in the plain with dry, stony torrent beds, which offer,
except at scanty bridges, considerable difficulties of
passage. The most southern is the Wady-el-Hesy,

13

14 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

which commences due west of edh Daharijeh. It Is
probably chiefly famous outside Palestine on account
of the great Tel-el-Hesy, which rises so abruptly from
Its southern bank that the winter torrents have cut
away part of the hill itself. Professor Flinders Petrie,
in 1890, visiting this site, at once realised from the
appearance of the artificial section thus made, and
the strata of ancient remains rich in pottery frag-
ments thus exposed, that this was the site of an ancient
city, and he was able, from his experience in archaeo-
logical work In Egypt, to provisionally assign to their
correct dates, the various layers of rubbish which had
accumulated on the original natural hill. From the
position of the site and the historical data he con-
cluded It was the ancient ^^Lachesh" which "through-
out history played second to Gaza, now the outpost of
Egypt, and now the frontier fortress of Syria." Soon
afterwards Dr. F. J. Bliss, on behalf of the P.E.F.,
excavated a considerable section of the city, cutting,
as It were, a slice out of the hill. The account of his
work is published in detail in his book, "A Mound of
Many Cities" (1898).

The mouth of Wady-el-Hesy lies almost exactly
between Gaza and Askelon.

Askelon was the second greatest of the Philistine
cities referred to in the lament over Saul: "Publish
It not In the streets of Ashkalon " (2 Sam. i. 20).
It has had a great and glorious history, to which Its
abundant ruins, now sand covered amid waving palms,
bear witness. In the centre of the great semicircle of
the Crusading walls — ^successors on the same foun-
dation of those of Roman times — lies a great elon-
gated mound, the site of the Philistine city. The sea
has here — as the torrent did at Tell el-Hesy — worn

THE PLAINS OF PHILISTIA 15

away parts of the m(5und, exposing upon the surface
on an almost perpendicular cliff, the successive remains
of the earliest civilisation.

"There lay bare, not a mere precipice of virgin
rock, but layer upon layer of gradually accumulated
debris overlying this, and going up to the surface
many feet above our heads. It stretched along as far
as we could see and, exposed as It was In this extraor-
dinary way by the action of the sea. It seemed as If
Nature had drawn a veil aside and we were allowed a
peep behind the scenes of Philistine history. The
writer has seen sea-washed sections elsewhere — In
Melos, Naxos, Crete, and other islands of the ^gean
Sea — but never In a guise so Impressive as this." —
D. Mackenzie, Quarterly Statement, P.E.F., 1913.

Some day we may hope that from this spot may be
recovered the archaeological remains of the little-
known civilisation of the Philistines. The Crusaders
considered Askelon their most important post in S.W.
Palestine, and contemporary Arabs described It as the
"Bride of Syria" ! It Is now almost as deserted as
ancient Babylon or Nineveh,

Some twelve miles up the coast from here Is the
Nahr (river) Siikereir — the mouth of a Wady of the
same name.

This Wady takes Its rise In the Shephelah by three
heads, the most important of which passes through
Beit-Jebrin, the ancient Eleutheropolls, near which lies
Tell Sandahannah, which was excavated by Dr. Bliss
for the Palestine Exploration Fund some years ago,
and proved to be the site of the ancient fortress-city of
Mareshah (2 Chron. xl. 8, &c.). At Beit-Jehrht
some exceedingly interesting tombs of the Greek

16 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

period were discovered by the Rev. J. P. Peters, D.D.,
of New York, the largest of which had paintings of
animals all round its walls.

On the northernmost arm of this Wady, just after
it enters the Plain is Tell es Safi, sometimes called Tell
es-Safiyah. This lofty hill, with its gleaming white
sides, is a prominent object from a considerable dis-
tance, and is undoubtedly the site of the fortress
Blanche-Garde of the Crusaders ; it is also very prob-
ably the site of the ancient Philistine city of Gath.
The next ravine, Wady es-Surar, is the most important
in all southern Palestine, as it, by both its branches,
leads up into the central plateau of Judaea, in close
proximity to Jerusalem. The northern branch starts
near er Ram, the Ramah of Benjamin of the Old
Testament, some four miles north of Jerusalem and
running an ever-deepening course south-west, is
crossed by the Jaffa-Jerusalem high road near Kido-
nish. The southern branch commences at the Plain of
Rephaim, just south of Jerusalem, and runs a very
winding course, and is at present of great importance,
because up it runs the narrow track of the Jaffa-
Jerusalem Railway. Both these branches and the
main valley itself run very deeply between steep and
lofty mountains, the centre of the valley being occu-
pied by a stony torrent bed — always dry except during,
or immediately after, heavy rain. The gorge passes
abruptly into the lower ground — the Shephelah — close
to another valley running north and south, and the
wide open vale thus formed is the "Vale of Sorek'*
(Judges xvi. 4), the topographical setting of the
stories of Samson. On the southern slope of the
valley, occupying a low hill close to the railway, lies
Aim Shems, the site of Bethshemesh, famous for the

THE PLAINS OF PHILISTIA 17

Incident of the return of the "Ark" by the panic-
stricken Philistines (i Sam. vl. 9). This site was
excavated by the P.E.F. shortly before the outbreak
of war, and its ancient walls and gates were completely
laid bare. Some three miles south-west of Aim Shems
lies Tihneh, the Timnah of Judges xlv. if. On the
opposite side of the valley lies the dominating lofty^
hill of Sorah, the "Zorah" of the Old Testament,
where Samson was born, and a couple of miles north-
east is Eshua or Eshtaol (Judges xvi. 31), near which
he was buried. The vale here Is open, and In tTie
spring, when clothed with corn. Is an attractive con-
trast to the barren mountain gorges of Judsea. Once
it was rich in vineyards, and old wine-presses are
plentiful in the hills around.

The railway, after following the valley to a little
beyond the station of Sejed, traverses some slightly
higher ground to Naameh, whence It runs almost due
north to Ramleh, a little under three miles. Due east
of Naameh Is the village of Abu Shusheh, on the
Isolated hill Tell el-Jezereh. This Is the site of the
once famous Gezer, the guard city of the entrance
into the mountains of Judsea by any of these valleys,
either the Wady Siirar, the Wady AH (up which the
Jaffa-Jerusalem road now goes), or the Valley of
'Ajalon — the historic route of armies to Jerusalem.
Of this city George Adam Smith writes :

"Within sight of every Egyptian and every Syrian
Invasion of the land, Gezer has also seen Alexander
pass by and the Legions of Rome In unusual flight,
and the armies of the Cross struggle, waver, and give
way, and Napoleon come and go. If all could rise
wha have fallen round its base — Ethiopians, Hebrews,
Assyrians, Arabs, Turcomans, Greeks, Romans, Celts,

18 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

Saxons, Mongols — what a rehearsal of the Judgment
Day it would be. Few of the travellers who now rush
across the Plain realise that the first conspicuous hill
they pass in Palestine is also one of the most thickly
haunted — even in that narrow land — into which his-
tory has so crowded itself."

On November 15th the "tell" witnessed a new race
fighting upon its slopes, when British Yeomanry
charged the Turks entrenched there — capturing 360
and killing over 400.

The whole summit of T ell-el-J ezereh was excavated
a few years ago by Professor R. A. S. McAlister on
behalf of the P.E.F., andl the amount of knowledge
accumulated by these five years' excavations has added
more to the archaeology of Palestine than all the other
excavations made in that land. Probably the very
trenches which he left after his excavations were
occupied by the Turks. The railway passes from
Ramleh to Lydda and thence to Jaffa.

To return to the Wady Siir'ir. The valley passes
westward between Katrah on the south (the ancient
Gederoth, Josh. xv. 41; 2 Chron. xxviii. 18), now a
village and a Jewish colony, and El Mughar on the
north, while Ekron, the modern Akir, also a Jewish
colony, lies another three miles further north. A little
further on the valley turns sharply to the north, and
after three miles, where there is a bridge for the high
road, lies Yebnah, now but a hamlet, but the site of
the famous Jewish town of Jamnia, once on a time the
meeting-place of the Jewish Sanhedrin. In the Old
Testament it was called Jabneh (Josh. xv. 11), and in
the days of the Crusaders it was Ibelin, the strong
fortress Ibelin; one of the village mosques to-day was
originally a crusading church. The ancient city had

THE PLAINS OF PHILISTIA 19

a sea-port of the same name at the mouth of the Wady,
where now the River Rubin empties itself into the sea.
The western border of the Philistine Plains is sep-
arated from the Judasan mountains by a very striking
stretch of hill country known as "The Shephelah."
The origin of this curious belt lies in the existence here
of what geologists know as a "fault" in the rocks,
which has resulted in an almost abrupt division be-
tween the low fertile hills of the west and the more
barren, steeper mountains of the east. The division is
marked by a series of valleys running north and south,
which skirt the mountains. The most marked of these
are the JVady es-Siir, Wady en-Najil, and the JVady
el-Ghiirah. West of this line the country is marked
by its fertility, its plentiful water supply, and its
extraordinarily abundant caves — notably around Beit-
Jebrin. The valleys we have just been describing pass
right across this district, and it is in this country that
the Hebrews had — in the days of the Judges and the
early kings — many stern fights against the Philistines,
and, in later ages, under the Maccabees, against the
Greeks. So much that has been said about the valleys
themselves from their military aspect will apply
equally to the district in which the valleys run, so that
it is unnecessary here to do more than make passing
reference to this region.

CHAPTER V
The Cities of the Middle Maritime Plain

RAMLEH, Lydda, and Jaffa, the most populated
centres in the maritime plain, are, under present
conditions, clearly indefensible against modern artil-
lery. Lying in the middle of level, highly cultivated
ground, with no natural defence at all, it is not won-
derful that when the British forces reached their
environs they were each in turn evacuated without any
special effort at defence — the Turks retiring to the
line of the el Aiija river and extending their line east-
ward into the mountains of Judaea.

Jaffa, the largest of the three towns, is at present
the most important sea-port on the coast of Palestine,
although being rapidly outrivalled by Haifa, on the
Bay of Akka. Perhaps the thing for which Jaffa Is
most famous — or infamous — Is Its extreme badness
as a port; It stands lowest on the list at Lloyds In this
respect. In ancient times there was a harbour suited
for small sailing ships, but the Inner harbour, which
was artificially made, has long ago silted up. The
outer harbour, protected by a series of jagged reefs, is
useless for any but quite small boats, and steamers
have to anchor without any kind of protection a mile
from the shore. During the stormy winter months
it Is quite common for steamers to have to pass the
port without landing cargoes or passengers, and at
such times Jerusalem has been without any European
mail for two weeks or more because of the impos-

20

CITIES OF THE MIDDLE MARITIME PLAIN 21

slbility of communicating with the shore. This will
be improved In the future; firstly, because the con-
nection of Palestine with Egypt, now made by the
railway through the desert, is sure to be a permanent
one; and secondly, because Haifa, which has many
natural advantages, will be Improved ere long into a
modern port — so that there will be at least two routes
for mails which will not be affected by stormy weather.

Jaffa was anciently a Phoenician colony, and though
the meaning of the name ^^ Japho'^ is unknown, it has
been interpreted by Hebrew analogy as meaning
"beautiful." The old myth of Perseus and Andro-
meda had Its setting here, and It was in these seas,
according to tradition, that Jonah was swallowed by
the sea monster (Jonah I. 3) . Both these tales found
local confirmation In early times. Even as late as the
Middle Ages the chains of Andromeda were shown
attached to rocks in the harbour, and the bones of
Jonah's whale also lay there to confirm the faith of
the sceptical. There are several references In cam-
paigns of Thothmes III. and Sennacherib to this town,
and Joppa was the port to which Hiram, King of
Tyre, sent timber by sea for the Temple of Solomon
(2 Chron. II. 16).

In the days of the Maccabees Jaffa became defi-
nitely Jewish ( I Maccabees x. 74/) , but Christianity
was early introduced (Acts Ix. 36), and we have the
record of several Bishops and Church Synods being
held there. It changed hands several times during the
Crusading period; the !ist great military event there
was Its capture by the French under Kleber in 1799.

From the sea Jaffa looks exceedingly picturesque,
the central part standing up on high sandhills and the
whole town being surrounded by many acres of gar-

22 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

dens and irrigated orange and lemon orchards. It is
still a thoroughly Oriental town — in spite of the fact
that a considerable German colony made a suburb
(since 1868) to the north-east. A very flourishing
German colony has been established some two miles
further north-east at Sarona, and more recently
(1892) a successful branch called Wilhelma was
established near El Yehudiyeh, some eight miles clue
east of Jaffa. It may be mentioned that after the
capture of this district the colonists were left undis-
turbed, although doubtless many of the younger men
are actually fighting in the ranks of the Turkish
Army. A flourishing Jewish colony has in recent
years been settled in the ground to the north of Jaffa,
between the railway and the sea, called Tell Aviv.
This has been built on very m.uch improved lines when
compared with some of the older colonies, and al-
ready, before the war, it was proving an educational
centre of some importance in the Jewish world, cer-
tificates from there being recognised at universities in
Europe. Jaffa is really the centre of a large group of
Jewish agricultural colonies, of which the most im-
portant are the Mikweh Israel, an agricultural school
under the Alliance Israelite, founded in 1870 on the
Jaffa- Jerusalem road; Petah Tikweh, to the north-
east, founded in 1878; and the Rishon-le-Zion, some
one and a half miles to the south of the same road,
founded in 1882.

The extensive orange gardens depend for their
existence upon water raised by either primitive water
wheels, worked often by camels or donkeys, or more
recently upon oil engines. The supply of water has
been sadly diminished during the war from lack of
fuel, and we hear that many of the orange trees have

CITIES OF THE MIDDLE MARITIME PLAIN 23

been destroyed. Most of the oranges grown here
were, before the war, exported annually to Great
Britain. This industry is sure to vastly increase in the
peaceful days that we hope lie in the near future.

Lydda, called in the Arabic " Ludd," is the " Lod"
of Ezra ii. 33. It rose to considerable prominence
under the Maccabees, and in Roman times received
the name Diospolls. Christianity found adherents
there in its earliest days (Acts ix, 32), and it became
the seat of a Bishopric. Its chief claim to fame is the
tradition that here St. George was buried, and in the
sixth century a church was built over his tomb, which,
after many destructions and rebuildings, still exists
to-day, although part of the ancient church is now
used as a mosque.

Ramleh, some two miles distant, is of early foun-
dation, and became a city of importance in the eighth
century A.D. It was very prosperous in the Middle
Ages, and in the days of the Crusaders was the seat
of a Bishopric. The large Mosque which exists there
was once a Christian church. Near the town is a
handsome and conspicuous tower, the Jamia El-
Abyad, which was once attached to a large mosque,
only the outlines of the foundations of which are now
visible. The tower is more like a Romanesque build-
ing than the conventional Minaret of a Mosque.

The whole district round Lydda and Ramleh is an
oasis of fertility with large groves of splendid olive
trees besides fruit trees of all descriptions. The
prickly pear (cactus), originally introduced from
America, is much used for making hedges, and in this
sandy soil grows to a great height. Many graceful
palm trees scattered about among the buildings of
Ramleh add greatly to its picturesqueness.

CHAPTER VI

The British Campaign

TT will be convenient at this point to recall the In-
-■■ cidents of General Allenby's rapid advance over
this historic ground. The long and weary months of
preparation were spent by the gradual accumulation
of a splendid force of seasoned and trained men.
There were many Battalions of Infantry from all parts
of Britain and Ireland. Then there were the Yeo-
manry from many counties of England — from
London, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Berkshire,
Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Dorsetshire — who
were casting longing eyes over the distant, fertile
plains. Then there were the mounted Anzacs, the
men from Australia and New Zealand, by this time
completely inured to desert warfare. And lastly,
Indian and West Indian troops, made, with the
French and Italian contingents, a composite force.
Artillery, ammunition and stores were by now accu-
mulated in overflowing abundance.

On October 26th, 191 7, the final preparations for
the advance commenced. Thq railway was pushed
forward from Shellal, fourteen miles south of Gaza
on the Wady Ghiizzeh, towards Karm in the direction
of Beersheba. Another branch was run to another
point on the Beersheba road, el Baggar, and arrange-
ments for watering the troops were made at Wady
Asluj, sixteen miles south-east of Gaza. These move-
ments were not unperceived by the Turks, who made a

24

THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN 25

great attack with two regiments of cavalry and some
two battalions of infantry against Kami, but were
beaten off with great gallantry by our London Yeo-
manry Brigade. The same day a fierce bombardment
of the Gaza defences was commenced from the sea.

On the night of October 30th, mounted troops were
got into position on the north-east of Beersheba, while
infantry In the early dawn of the 31st were marched
to positions on the south-west. The attack was com-
menced at an early hour, and before evening, after
fierce fighting, the position was captured. Among the
outlying fortified posts was Tell es Saba, the before-
mentioned site of Beersheba or Sheba of the Canaanltc
time. A number of German machine gunners had to
be cleared off this site. On November ist, the In-
fantry moved nine miles to the north of Beersheba,
and mounted troops pushed forward to within four
miles of edh Dhaheriyeh. Meanwhile some of our
infantry moved into a position north-west of Beer-
sheba in the neighbourhood of Ahu Irgeig. Thus the
capture of the eastern end of the long fortified line of
the Turkish defence was now complete.

At the western end on the morning of November
2nd, British infantry advanced and captured a hill
nicknamed "Umbrella Hill," some 500 yards west of
the Dir el-Belah-Gaza road and proceeded to take the
whole of the Gaza first line defences between there
and the sea. In this attack they were assisted by the
"Tanks."

On November 6th, our Infantry north of Beersheba
at Ain Kohle advanced two miles to the Turkish posi-
tion at Khiiwelifeh, while dismounted Yeomanry and
Irish and London infantry, advancing from the
neighbourhood of Abu Irgeig, captured the 'wholei of

26 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

the Turkish lines up to Abu Hareira. By nightfall a
general retreat of the Turks had commenced, the
British infantry and mounted troops pursuing them
towards Jemmameh and Huj. The eastern line hav-
ing now completely given way, the attack on Gaza
was renewed at midnight on the 6th, and the city was
captured without much opposition; the British left
wing — Scottish infantry — pushing forward through
the heavy sand dunes with great energy the same
night towards the mouth of Wady Hesy : they at once
attacked the Turks entrenched on the north bank,
although it was then dark, and captured the position
by midnight. Other battalions advancing along the
high road further east met with most determined oppo-
sition at Deir Sincid, further east the banks of the
same Wady, the enemy counter-attacking four times
before being driven out. Still further to the east
mounted troops, Anzacs and others, pushed north-
wards from Sheria, and took Tell es Sheria the next
morning at 4.30.

Meanwhile at Attawiney, some seven miles from
Gaza on the Beersheba road, the Turks still made a
show of resistance, but by the 8th they retired, and
thus the whole line of original defence passed into our
hands.

The advance now became rapid. During November
8th mounted troops — the Warwickshire and Worces-
tershire Yeomanry — reached the middle course of
the Wady Hesy passing Tell-el-Hesy. They captured
Huj in a brilliant action, in which they took twelve
guns, three machine guns, and 100 prisoners, the accu-
mulated stores in the town having been set on fire by
the retreating Turks. After a brilliant action by the
Indian Imperial Service Cavalry In Beit Hanun, the

THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN 27

terminus of the Gaza branch of the railway was cap-
tured, with large stores of heavy gun ammunition, the
retreating troops being harassed by the Royal Flying
Corps with machine guns and bombs.

On the 9th mounted troops moved forward rapidly,
through Askelon and El Mejdel successively, and by
night reached Esdiid (Ashdod) further inland; at et
Tineh, where the retreating Turks set fire to enormous
stores at the railway junction, the Australians were in
time to save and capture a vast booty.

On the I ith, although the mounted troops had pro-
ceeded a good deal further north, our infantry had to
clear a strong body of Turks out of the village of Beit
Duras, a little on the southern edge of the JVady
Siikreir, along which ravine 13,000 Turks had been
frantically entrenching themselves to resist our ad-
vance. The retreat by now had become in many parts
precipitate. A correspondent wrote at this time :

"I have been over many miles of battlefield, and saw
everywhere many wagons and an enormous amount of
undestroyed gun ammunition, in places piles of field
and heavy gun shells in boxes and wicker crates. I
hear that a number of exploded dumps are to be found
all over the country." — (W. T. Massey, in The
Daily Telegraph.)

The next day, after a desperate fight at Burkah,
where the Turks had to be driven out of a strongly
fortified post with two lines of trenches, the enemy
occupied the general line from the mouth of the JVady
Sukereir, twelve miles north of Askelon, running
south-east to Beit-Jabrin, the line being considerably
more advanced near the coast than further east. Still
further east our troops in the mountains had captured
edh Dhaheriyeh.

ft8 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

The next day, November 13th, was a day of fierce
fighting, the Turks making a brave and obstinate
resistance to our advance along their chosen line. El
Mesmiyeh, Katrah and Mughaf. were each taken after
heavy fighting. Here the Berkshire, Buckingham-
shire and Dorsetshire Yeomanry greatly distinguished
themselves, and by coming to the assistance of the
Scottish Infantry captured 1,500 prisoners, twenty
machine guns and four guns, and 400 Turks were
burled after the action. Our line was thus advanced
from et Tineh through Katrah, to Yebnah m the
West.

By the 14th our troops occupied the JFady Rubin,
with Its narrow flowing stream, and due east of this
seized the railway in the vicinity of Naameh and El
Mansurah, Including the junction with the central rail-
way from the north.

The next day, the 15th', our troops after slight
resistance occupied the line Ramleh and Ludd and
reached some three miles south of Jaffa. At Abu
Shusheh (Gezer) the Yeomanry captured this historic
site, as has been described already.

On the 17th, Australian and New Zealand troops
captured at Ludd (Lydda) 300 prisoners and four
machine guns, and later occupied Jaffa without oppo-
sition. The area now reached was fairly thickly
populated, as numbers of the fellahin had been re-
moved there from the nelghbouiiiood of Gaza by the
Turks.

The picture of the welcome received by the troops
is very delightful :

"The people turned out by the Turks from Gaza
and the surrounding country were trekking back with
all their worldly goods and chattels packed on over-

THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN 29

loaded camels and donkeys, the women bearing aston-
ishingly heavy loads on their heads, while the
patriarchs of families rode, or were carried on the
shoulders of the younger men. The agriculturists are
beginning to turn out to plough and till the fields, now
they have the security of British protection. Orr
troops receive the liveliest welcome in passing vhe
villages, and in this unchanging part of the world the
women sit and gossip during the process of drawing
water from the well, just as they did in Biblical days,
unhindered by the war's progress, though not heedless
of it. There is peace and safety for them all.

"This end to extortion, oppression, and pillage
under the name of requisitions has, In the short space
of a week, wrought a wondrous change In the happi-
ness and contentment of the people.

"The German propaganda has failed miserably
here.

"British ideals of freedom are thoroughly known,
and the exem.plary behaviour of our troops has con-
firmed all previous knowledge of the work done by
Great Britain for civilisation.

"To say that this country, whicK a fortnight ago
was under the Turkish scourge and war, has suddenly
become normal for the civil population. Is not to use
words of exaggeration. In Ramleh people are prac-
tising the arts of peace and the bazaars are busy. Our
Yeomanry are buying Jaffa oranges, vegetables, and
fresh bread, a welcome change from the diet of a fort-
night's strenuous times, at fair rates, the traders
receiving payment In cash, an alteration from the de-
preciated Turkish note to which they are accustomed.'*
— W. T. Massey, In The Daily Telegraph.

Ramleh, Lydda and Jaffa and the villages around
being now secured, an advance was made towards
Jerusalem Itself. The historic pass through the Vale

30 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

of Ajalon was followed by our cavalry, who reached
Beit-Ur-el-Tahta (lower Bethoran) on November
1 8th, and worked their way in contact with the enemy
four miles west of Beria; after reaching Beitunia,
which commands the Northern road, they had again
to fall back to Beit-Ur-el-Folia (Bethoran the Up-
per;. Meanwhile, by the 19th, infantry had with
heavy fighting advanced to Kuryet-el-Enab, six miles
west of Jerusalem, and Beit Likia, on the road from
the Vale cf Ajalon towards El Kukeibeh (Emmaus),
and by the 21st the lofty dominating mountain of
Nebi Samuel, the site of the traditional tomb of the
Prophet Samuel, was stormed. In trying to drive out
the British the Mosque over the tomb seems to have
been destroyed, which is not remarkable, as its lofty
position would have given the British a unique point
of vantage.

CHAPTER VII

Advance on Jerusalem

THE campaign takes on a new aspect when It
turns from the occupation of the Maritime
Plain to the investment of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem lies high up, some 2,450 feet above the
Mediterranean, in the plateau of central Judasa. In
the days of ancient warfare its military strength lay
largely in the deep valleys almost surrounding its site,
and the powerful walls rising from these valley slopes
made the city almost impregnable from all sides but
the north, where the absence of a valley was. In
Roman times, compensated for by a triple wall.

The line of defence of Jerusalem now lies far out
from the city. From the south. In past history, the
desert and the almost waterless Negeb have been such
a defence that directly from this direction the In-
habitants of Jerusalem might well think themselves
secure. "No army of Invasion, knowing that oppo-
sition awaited them on the Judasan frontier, would
venture across those steep and haggard ridges. . . .
Hence we find Judaea almost never Invaded from the
south." — (G. A. Smith.) But this present war has
entirely altered the conditions. In earlier Invasions
the army had behind them but a waterless desert; now,
thanks partly to the Turks themselves, the British
Army has an excellent road from Beersheba north-
wards, and railway tracks connect this town south-
wards with el Auja, and eastwards with Gaza and the

31

S2 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

maritime plain. As the British Army advanced very
early to edh Dhahriyeh they had before them a
straight high road to the vine-clad valleys of Hebron.
From Hebron to the neighbourhood of Bethlehem the
road traverses the ridge of the water shed, and is by
no means difficult; there are no deep gorges or precip-
itous gulleys, and in many places the valleys open out
into small plateaux. There is water at several places
— at Ain ed Dirweh, traditionally the spot where
Philip baptised the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts vlii. 36) ;
at JVady el-Arruh, from which water was in Roman
times conducted to Jerusalem by aqueduct; and at the
springs and pools known as the Pools of Solomon.
There are, of course, on this route many hills whicK
dominate the road, but they can be easily enfiladed
from the east or west. As will be seen In what follows,
the greater part of this route of approach to the city,
viz., past the Pools of Solomon, and Bethlehem, is
one which can be initiated from the west, Bethlehem
itself lies on a rocky spur running east of the main
road, actually out of the line of advance, but con-
nected with the carriage way by a good road.
Through Bethlehem various roads pass eastwards to
the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley.

iWith respect to the western approach, Judaea
always had natural defences of considerable strength,
a fact which has had great bearing on the survival and
Isolation of the Hebrew race In the days when other
small races succumbed to either Assyria or Egypt. Of
all the western defiles " few are straight, most of them
sharply curved. The sides are steep and even pre-
cipitous, frequently with no path between save for the
rough torrent bed arranged in rapids of loose shingle
or in level steps of the limestone strata, which at the

ADVANCE ON JERUSALEM 33

mouth of the defile are often tilted almost perpen-
dicularly Into really difficult obstacles of passage.
The sun beats fiercely down upon the limestone, the
springs are few, though sometimes very generous, a
low thick bush fringes all the brows, and caves abound
in tumbled rocks." — (G. A. Smith.)

The northernmost of the passes that start in the
Vale of Ajalon is the one which, all through history,
has been associated with great battles. Passing from
the level plains around Gezer, Wady Selman, or the
Valley of Ajalon, runs north-eastward into the moun-
tains, and from the most eastern end of the wide
valley three paths ascend into the hills. Of these the
most famous is that by the two Beth-Horons, along
which historic battles have been waged of great im-
portance. Here Joshua fought the Canaanites and
drove them in headlong slaughter to the plains (Josh.
X. lo). When the Philistines were opposing King
Saul at Geba they sent a company of their men to
hold the way to Beth-Horon (I Sam. xIII. i6|f). By
route the first Crusaders reached Jerusalem In two
days. It was the great high road into the heart of the
land from the earliest times to three or four centuries
ago, and history repeats itself as we read that the
British troops reach Beit-Ur-el-Tahta and Beit-Ur-eU
Foka, the two Beth-Horons. This pass opens upon
the plateau of Judsea north of the lofty ridge of Nebl
Samuel, and thus reaches the Central Jerusalem-
Nablus road, some four miles due north of the city.
Another road from the Wady Selman passes through
Beit Likia and el-Kiibeibeh to Neht Samuel Itself, and
by this road Kuriet el-Enab, on the Jaffa- Jerusalem
high road, can easily be reached, thus avoiding the
difficulties of fVady All, South of this pass is Wady

34 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

/4li, up which the Jaffa-Jerusalem road finds Its way.
The entrance to the mountain at Bab el-Wad, literally
the " Gate of the Valley," is a narrow gorge between
high mountains; this gate, and the first few miles of
the road where it runs between high steep hills, would
be quite impassable If any adequate defence was put
up, and report says that It was strongly fortified.
There are, however, at points (besides the one men-
tioned above) narrow paths which ascend the hills
and reach the high road after It leaves this valley
either at Saris or a little further east at Kuryet-el-
Enah. From these places to Jerusalem the road,
though rising and falling several times. Is by no means
Impassable for an army. After crossing the deep
valley at Kiilonyeh, situated In the deep northern arm
of the JVady el-Suras, two routes are possible, one to
the south by the old road (now much out of repair),
another to the north of the main more modern road,
and both converge just before the first houses of
Jerusalem begin. The third pass, JVady es Surar, has
already been described, and it may be said at once that
this deep winding gorge would be quite Impossible as a
route of military approach unless the hills on each
side were first seized, and It Is certain that great
resistance will be offered to the Army obtaining posses-
sion to so vital a thing as the railway. The fourth
pass Is the JVady es Sunt, known of aid as the Vale of
Elah ; the higher reaches of this valley, known as the
Wady es Sur, run due north and then east, reaching
the hill country near Beit Sur, the ancient Beth-Zur
(Josh. XV. 58; Neh. HI. 16). This route has been
used several times by armies, the most famous invasion
being that of Antlochus IIL, who with Lyslas as his
general, led the Syrian Army, accompanied by ele-

ADVANCE ON JERUSALEM 35

phants, up this route and defeated Judas Maccabeus
at Beth Zacharya, near the IVady el-Arriib ( i Mace,
vl. 32/.). Richard, King of England, in the third
Crusade, attempted this route after failing to reach
Jerusalem through the Vale of Ajalon. An attack on
Jerusalem after the plateau is reached is one from the
south, as contrasted with that through the Vale of
Ajalon approaches from the north.

After the first rush up the plains and the rapid
seizure of the western approaches to Jerusalem a
necessary pause occurred while supplies were brought
up and the lines of communication were improved. It
was necessary to improvise some roads into the moun-
tains to bring up the artillery. All this took time,
while the onset of the heavy winter's rains Increased
the difficulties of transport. Meanwhile the British
Army held a long line running from the mouth of the
river Aujeh the west — westwards and south-westwards
into the hill country. Here, the centre and most
actively attacking force held the line of the Beth
Horon pass from el Burj — the site of an old crusad-
ing fort, erected by Richard Cceur de Lion, to protect
this very road — past the two Beth Horons, south-
wards past the great mountain of Nebi Samuel —
which dominates all the country round — to Ain Kal-
rem and Bettir. Both these two last sites have the best
springs of water In the whole district. AIn Kalrem
is a beautiful little town, by tradition the birthplace of
John the Baptist, and here there is a charming settle-
ment of Russian nuns built amid groves of cypresses
and other trees. From AIn Kalrem to Jerusalem there
is a good carriage road. Bettir is important as the last
station on the railway as Jerusalem is approached. It
was the site of a great Jewish tragedy when (a.d.

36 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

135) the last remaining followers of the false Messiah
Bar Cochba, who had raised rebellion against Rome,
were besieged and finally massacred so that, it is said,
the place ran with torrents of blood. The ancient site
is known as Khirbet el Yahud, the Jews' ruin.

The extreme right of the Army meanwhile occupied
edh Dhahariyeh, ancient Debir, and an extended line
held the western passes between.

The western (left) end of the attacking force con-
tinued to be held back by the Nahr Aujeh — probably
they only intended to protect what had been gained.
This river is the largest and southernmost of the
short low-lying streams, with marshy banks liable after
rain to overflow, which traverse the Plain of Sharon
from east to west. It has formed a military barrier
before, as when Alexander Jannseus tried in vain to
fortify this line to resist the advance of Antiochus.
Several skirmishes occurred here, and on one occasion
Australian mounted troops captured at Birket el
Jamus "the pool of the Buffaloes," a number of
Turks.

The central attacking force was heavily engaged for
several days. At el Burj, on a ridge overlooking the
pass, the Turkish forces, to the number of 600, at one
time reached the thinly guarded British trenches, but
iwere counter-attacked and almost annihilated.

Beit ur et Foka changed hands several times and
eventually proved to be a place impossible to hold on
either side as long as the heights around were held
by opposing parties. The lofty mountain of Nebi
Samuel — the site of the traditional tomb of Samuel
and by many considered that of Mizpah — dominates
the country round for miles. British troops early
captured the site and entrenched themselves against

ADVANCE ON JERUSALEM 87

the most determined attacks, the opposing forces being
in places on the steep hillsides but forty yards apart.
The recently rebuilt shrine crowning the hill, which
had been occupied as a place of refuge by the Moham-
medans of the neighbouring village, was entirely
destroyed by Turkish gunfire. It might have been
more "pious" to leave it, but It would hardly have
been war, as it affords the finest look-out of all.

While the Turks were heavily engaged from the
west the right wing commenced to fold in from the
south. This seemed from the first to present the most
favourable approach — under modern conditions. He-
bron was occupied on December 8th. This ancient
city, sacred to Moslems, Jews and Christians as the
site of the Cave of Machpelah where were buried
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives, lies in the
Wady el Khulil amid wide spreading vineyards, fertile
fields and abundant springs. It lies high-over 3,000
feet above sea level, and is surrounded by still loftier
hills. From Hebron to Jerusalem, though there are
many "ups and downs," the road — an excellent car-
riage road — Is mainly a descent. The Army rapidly
advanced — probably the Turks were too much occu-
pied on their extended front to concentrate great
forces on this new attack. Bethlehem and Beit Jala,
with their great forests of olive-trees, were passed and
from here the approaches to the city, both from the
south and — iby detaching troops eastwards — from "'^e
Jordan Valley In the east, were cut. Meanwhile the
central forces had reached the northern Jerusalem-
Nablus road, and the city being thus Isolated it sur-
rendered to General Allenby. The following day he,
accompanied by French, Italian and Mohammedan
representatives, entered the Holy City in triumph.

CHAPTER VIII

Modern Jerusalem

IVfTODERN Jerusalem is a strange conglomeration
^^■^ of various elements. It is at once eastern and
western; it is at once Christian, Jewish and Moslem.
It is sacred to all those religions ; so sacred that no one
dare to contemplate that it should be dominated by
the others. Rivalry between the great religions is even
reproduced within those religions themselves. Thus
we see it in the rivalry of the various branches of the
Catholic Church; in the rivalry of Sunnite and Shiite
among the Moslems, and in the rivalry between the
orthodox and the reformed, between the purely
religious and purely nationalistic Jew. Then added
to this we see representatives of all European nations
living there outvieing one another in their desire for
political preponderance, seeking to impress the Turk,
either with their friendliness to him, or with their
power (which is more successful) by an overbearing
manner in demanding redress of grievances.

Such a city must be largely cosmopolitan, and the
variety of dress and costume, of outlook on life and
of habit of life, is enormous. It is calculated that not
less than fifty languages and dialects are spoken daily
L. the streets of Jerusalem, and it must be admitted
that the task of the Turk, in striving to keep In order
a city of such various, such rival and such divided
Interests has been no light one. It is well known that
he has had to keep order at such sacred sites as the

38

MODERN JERUSALEM 39

Church of tKe Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the
Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem by placing armed
Turkish soldiers there as guards.

The capitulations, a code of privileges, obtained
from the Turks by the great Powers, whereby the
subjects of those Powers were not in ordinary affairs
liable for punishment at the Turkish courts, have
given rise in increasing measure during recent years to
the most extraordinary abuses. Every Power, how-
ever small, is represented by a Consul or Vice-Consul,
which in the case of the smaller Powers has very often
been a man who has had no previous connection with
the country he represents nor even knows its language,
and yet he obtains for himself substantial privileges.
He can import goods for his private use free of duty,
has the privilege of having a Turkish soldier or " can-
vass" marching with him and enjoys considerable
immunity from any kind of jurisdiction on the part
of the Turks. In the same way the privileges which
were granted originally to Catholic monks and nuns of
freedom from duty for those goods which were needed
in their work, have by the pressure of the Protestant
Powers been extended to the missionaries, teachers and
doctors connected with all the missions established in
the city.

It thus comes about that the foreign element, con-
sisting largely of consular people, the members of
Religious Orders and the agents of many missions,
were to a large extent exempt from taxation on
Imported goods. The unfortunate native merchant is
obliged to pay very heavy duties, and generally heavy
bachshesh, for goods on which he hopes to make a
profit sale to the very people, in many instances, who
could get the same goods duty, free. These privileges

40 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

were also abused on not a few occasions by unscrupu-
lous consular agents Importing into the country things
altogether forbidden, such transactions being assisted
by the universal custom of bachsheshing the officials.
The state of the post has been very extraordinary.
Besides a very Inefficient Turkish post there are sep-
arate postal services — each with special stamps —
belonging to the Austrians, Germans, French, Rus-
sians and Italians.

Christianity in Jerusalem cannot be said to appear,
looking broadly at It, in a very pleasing light. The
various ancient branches of the Church — many of
whom, like the Greek, the Armenian and the Copt,
have held their own amidst constant persecution and
oppression from the Moslem — have sunk to a low
educational level. The propaganda of the Latin
Church has, from the Crusading times, always largely
been carried on among these Eastern Churches, and
by a spirit of compromise she has established a kind of
half-way house between them and herself by establish-
ing a Greek Catholic Church as contrasted with the
Greek Orthodox Church, an Armenian Catholic
Church as contrasted with the Armenian Orthodox
Church, and others such. It must be admitted that
the standard of education In these two Eastern
Catholic Churches Is decldely higher than in the
Orthodox. At the same time the Roman Catholic
Church has herself large establishments In Palestine
with able men presided aver by a " Patriarch," and
she has undoubtedly accomplished great things, but
the rivalry between her and the Eastern Churches Is
none the less on that account. The Anglican Church
has long been working In Jerusalem and has had a
Bishop ever since 1842. Nowadays, If not so much

MODERN JERUSALEM 41

in the past, her efforts are concentrated upon estab-
lishing good relations with the Greek Church and
upon working among Moslems and Jews educationally
and medically. There are very few Protestant sects
that are not, to some degree, represented in the Holy
City — even Mormons, Christian Scientists and Sev-
enth Day Adventists. " Cranks " of all kinds seem to
gravitate there and find the atmosphere a congenial
one.

The first Impression, indeed, that the traveller
receives on a visit to Jerusalem is not one conducive to
the deepening of religious feeling. On all sides he is
surrounded by places which claim to be the site of
some Biblical incident. Many obviously are spurious,
others he finds on study have little real claim to genu-
ineness. If his visit is a short one he will In all prob-
ability leave the city with no Impression beyond that
of the strange medley of life and a jumble of "holy
sites," and will find possibly in other parts of Pales-
tine— In Bethlehem or in the rest and quiet of the Lake
of Galilee — the satisfaction of his religious Instincts
for which Jerusalem seems to have none to give. But
for those who are willing to study and think, there is
even In Jerusalem a perennial source of Interest which
even long years spent there, as by the writer, who has
resided there, on and off, for over twenty years, cannot
exhaust; the fascination of It all will grow they will
realise that if the mere ecclesiastical sites have no
appeal to reason, they have around them places In-
dubitably associated with a thousand Incidents In
history, sacred and profane, which makes every out-
look in and around the city of deepest interest. For
example, no one disputes the great valleys that sur-
round the city, the Valley of Hinnom on the west, the

4^ THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

Valley of the Kidron on the east, the so-called Virgins'
Fountain, once the site of Gihon, and the Birket
Silwan or Pool of Siloam, or th^ aqueduct connecting
the two, undoubtedly the work ti Hezekiah.

The Mount of Olives, disfigu ^ed to-day by a great
Russian tower and the newer German tower of the
Kaiserin Augusta Victoria Hospice, is still a spot of
sacred memory. Below in the Valley of the Kidron,
if not in the identical spot now shown at least near it,
lies the Garden of Gethsemane. On the eastern side
of the Mount of Olives lies that marvellous view of
the Wilderness of Judaea, the plains of the Jordan, the
Dead Sea and the great long mountain mass of Moab
bounding the horizon.

The city walls, although but an erection of Sulei-
man the Magnificent In the sixteenth century, are still
picturesque, and run in many places on the lines of the
walls of 2,000 years ago. The ancient course of the
walls at this and still earlier ages, where they run
south, can be followed to-day through the excavations
which were made by Messrs. Bliss and Dickie on
behalf of the P.E.F.

The mere study of these walls in itself will be of
absorbing interest to some, when viewed in connection
with that wonderful history of nearly 3,000 years.
Although the Temple has disappeared the lines of the
great platform marked out by Herod the Great when
he wished his temple to out-rival in magnificence and
size the Temple of Solomon himself, are still followed
by the enclosing walls of el Haram, and Herod's mas-
sive foundation stones have been uncovered 80 feet
below the present surface. The sacred rock which
forms the centre of all this vast enclosure, and receives
from the Moslem world veneration only second to

MODERN JERUSALEM 43

that given to Mecca, Is to-day enshrined In the " Dome
of the Rock," the most beautiful building In all Syria.
Although no stone of Solomon's Temple can now be
identified, yet on this rock once stood the brazen altar
(or as some suppose the "Holy of Holies") and
standing on the great platform outside, the student
can still trace where lay the various courts of the
Temple area. The student may still trace to-day the
situation of the Zion of King David of the "Upper
City," of Bezetha and the Tyropean Valley and all
the various parts as described by Josephus.

If he is happy In possessing Imagination, he can
still, amid the modern buildings and over the now
cultivated hillsides of the south, see the great Roman
Jerusalem on which the eyes of Jesus rested. One
man will go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and
see very little but what he considers a travesty of
religion and the mutual jealousy of the churches,
another of broader minded sympathy will see In this
site, which however doubtful archseologlcally has wit-
nessed the veneration, the tears and prayers of millions
of Christians through countless generations, a place
which must on that account alone be one of sacred
interest.

The Jewish problem as seen in Jerusalem Is one of
living interest, as there a visitor will see crowded into
a few square miles samples, as It were, of that scat-
tered race from all the lands wither they have been
driven, all drawn to their ancient Zion. He will
realise, as probably he can never do in any other place,
that stirring of the whole race Zionwards which seems
to be on the eve of fulfillment — a consummation of
the dreams of Jewish idealists through all the cen-
turies of their dispersion. To the Protestant, whose

44 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

religion, if he has any, is so largely a question of
reason and cold calculated thought, it is difficult indeed
to enter into the spirit of the Russian peasant, who,
after long years of saving the necessary money to pay
the journey, tramps many a hundred mile through the
plains of Russia and at last, amid discomforts innu-
merable, reaches the goal of his hopes in the Holy
Sepulchre. The desire of many such is to be buried in
the Holy City or Land, and only a few years ago,
after a snow storm in the passes not far north of
Jerusalem, no less than twenty-six Russian pilgrims
perished amidst the snow. One cannot help thinking
largely because they made little effort to save them-
selves. Every year the Russian pilgrim passes from
Jerusalem to Jericho, to be baptised in the Jordan in
the shroud in which he wishes to be buried. Some-
thing of the emotional spirit which prompts all this Is
reproduced in Stephen Graham's *' With the Russian
Pilgrims in Jerusalem."

It is not only Russian pilgrims that thus feel the
spirit of the place. Any Eastertide processions of
French pilgrims may be seen passing up the rough
steep streets of the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, carrying on their shoulders a great
wooden cross, striving in their way to realise the
pilgrimage of Him who first carried His cross for
their sakes.

For the student of archaeology, Jerusalem Is the
centre of great and perhaps Increasing importance.
Here the P.E.F., the American School of Archaeology,
the German Biblical Oriental School and the French
Dominican University of St. Etienne all have their
headquarters. The first has chiefly been engaged in
making excavations In Jerusalem and In other parts of

MODERN JERUSALEM 45

Palestine, and is only represented in the Holy City
by a museum, a library, and occasional lectures. The
other three receive students for varying periods, who
reside there, and take up various branches of study
connected either with the Bible or Oriental life. The
American Society is supported by several American
Universities, and annually sends a distinguished Pro-
fessor of Theology. Archaeology, or Semitic studies,
with students who pass the greater part of the year
with him in the study of the land and of the people.
Undoubtedly the near future will see the rise in Jeru-
salem of a great Jewish University which will form
the centre of Jewish intellectual culture, both religious
and secular. Indeed with humbler beginnings Jeru-
salem has been for long a considerable educational
centre, only marred by the fact that education has been
in so many languages and under the auspices of so
many nationalities that the people of the land have
been led too much to look towards countries outside
their own for th^ir; ilnitellectuall ou^ooki. Strange
anomalies occur, as when in the best Jewish School the
boys under the Alliance Israelite are taught French as
their chief language, while the girls, whom presum-
ably they will make their wives, are educated at the
Evelina de Rothschild English School, in English!
This babel of tongues among the Jews the Zionists
hope to remedy by the revival of colloquial Hebrew,
already much used In the Jewish Agricultural Col-
onies, as the living language among the Jews of
Palestine.

Besides education, Jerusalem has become a centre
for many hospitals, not less than fifteen being estab-
lished there, representing all the leading nationalities
in the place. The first hospital started there was that

46 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

of the English Mission Hospital, started in 1842, at
the same time as the Anglican Bishopric, and for many
years the medical officer of this hospital was the only
civilian doctor practising in the place. In the past this
hospital has, since the erection of the German hospital,
been used chiefly for the Jews, but being under the
auspices of an English Mission, has been prejudiced
consequently In the eyes of the Jews, both Orthodox
and Reformed. It is probable that after the war it
will be restarted on a broader basis. The Jews now
are provided with four good hospitals of their own
and there are many Jewish doctors. There is a British
Ophthalmic hospital run by the British Order of the
Knights of St. John, and also efficient German, French,
Russian, and Italian hospitals, the last not quite
finished when the war began. A hospital under the
Moravians, exclusively for lepers. Is, too, doing a most
beneficent work. The sickness in Jerusalem is very
great, but most of it is due to preventable causes, espe-
cially Malaria and Infectious Specific Fevers. The
scantiness of the water supply and the entire absence
of anything that can be called scientific drainage has
done much to retard progress. The drainage can
easily be remedied In a city situated so high with deep
valleys In the Immediate neighbourhood.

Shortly before the war an " International Health
Bureau " was started In Jerusalem and made an excel-
lent beginning. One of the first duties under the new
regime must be to make Jerusalem, as It undoubtedly
may be made, a healthy city. The climate, although
hot during the day in the long rainless summer, Is
healthy compared with the lower ground in Palestine.
The late spring and early autumn are trying from the
prevalence of the hot, dry, east wind, the Sirocco, The

MODERN JERUSALEM 47

winter Is cold with a heavy rainfall, sometimes as
much as thirty or forty inches, and sometimes heavy
snow, yet it is bracing and in intervals between the
spells of rain there are glorious days of cloudless sun-
shine and pleasant breezes.

CHAPTER IX

The Future of Palestine

TT is hardly possible to imagine that, whatever the
■^ future destiny of Palestine may be, it could ever
return to the hands of those who have so utterly abused
their trust, as the Turks. It is not because the Turks
have attacked the British that they wish, in any spirit
of revenge, to remove them from the land which they
have held so long. The individual Turk has fought
as a brave soldier, and in not a few respects with
cleaner hands than his Prussian masters. The British
soldier can respect bravery wherever he sees it, cer-
tainly not the least In an enemy; and there are many
records of what the soldier calls a "sportsmanlike"
spirit on the part of the Turk that has done him credit.
But all this does not qualify the corrupt and venal
Turkish rulers to continue to hold in subjection and
poverty a race of people, by history and by culture, in
many respects, superior to themselves. The Syrian
people have been loyal to the Turks to a degree that
no European would have been, and in return have
received nothing but oppression and robbery, and par-
ticularly during these years of war have been treated
in a way that could admit of no possibility of recur-
rence. Their land has been wasted, and if there have
been no actual massacres, undoubtedly thousands have
died from starvation which, if not deliberately inflicted
(as is quite possible) might at least have been easily
avoided. But far beyond this, the frightful tragedy

48

THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE 49

of Armenia must for ever make it impossible that any
decent-minded people could entertain the idea that the
Turks are fit to rule an alien race. That the Turks
should govern themselves (if the Germans ever intend
to let them do so) is without objection, but that they
should govern other races we must hope will never
be allowed.

Any arrangement which is made for the future of
Palestine must have the interest of the Syrian peoples
at heart. Up to the time of the war the number of
inhabitants was probably as many as the then state of
the country could support, in all perhaps 600,000, of
whom 75 per cent, were Moslems. To them, and to
the very many Syrians, who have migrated to Egypt,
the United States and other lands on account of the
oppression of the Turks, this land Is the land of their
forefathers. Many of the emigrants will doubtless
wish to return and invest capital in the land, and
we may be sure that unless unjustifiable pressure is
brought upon them, very few of them will wish to
part with their ancestral possessions.

Next to these we have to consider the claims of the
great religious bodies that are interested in Palestine.
To the Moslem Jerusalem with the Temple area (the
Haram) and to a lesser extent Hebron with its mosque
over the tomb of the patriarchs, are holy places only
second in sanctity to Mecca and Medena. No British
Government having a voice in the disposal of the land
could dream of alienating the millions of Moslems of
the British Empire by in any way dispossessing the
Moslem world of sites so sacred. All the details of
the occupation of Jerusalem in December, 19 17, have
illustrated this scrupulous reverence for the holy places.
The problem of Palestine Is part of the great problem

50 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

of the Arab races scattered through Syria, Mesopo-
tamia, Arabia and Egypt.

With regard to the various branches of the Chris-
tian Church, those interested in the Christian sites may
well insist that In Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth
and along the northern shores of the Lake of Galilee
the Christian Pilgrim or tourist will have free access to
these spots consecrated by sentiment. It may be that
from the first means will be wisely taken whereby no
modern " improvements " or " developments " should
destroy the picturesqueness of, and free access to, those
places which mean so much to Christians. New set-
tlements for colonies of whatever kind should be so
planned and constructed as to fall in with the view
that this unique land, in a sense, is the object of
Christian sentiment throughout the world.

With regard to the Jews, there is every reason to
hope that under the new regime they will have facili-
ties as never before for colonising the land. Their
colonies, even under the Turks, who put almost insu-
perable difficulties in the way, have made a wonderful
beginning. They will all admit of further develop-
ment, and various Zionist societies have already large
undeveloped estates on which to found new colonies.
With regard to further extensions, there is very much
undeveloped land, especially In their old home, the
mountain regions of Judaea — hitherto strangely
neglected by the Zionists — which might doubtless be
purchased very cheaply without ousting the fellahin
from their own villages and the fields Immediately
around them. Such development will require wise and
firm administration and much patience and perse-
verance.

Before all, development must be progressive and the

THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE 51

first settlers to be selected must include experienced
sanitary officers, engineers, and agriculturists, who
should act as pioneers for the families that will follow
them as the land can support them. Much of the
failure that attended the early Jewish colonisation
schemes was due to haphazard selection of sites and of
settlers. Sites were chosen in places quite unsuited for
settlement by Europeans with their families. Settlers
were sent out who had no experience of practical agri-
culture and still less of the conditions of life and
agriculture in the East. It is most important that no
system of doles like the old Haliika should be allowed
to grow up with the new movement. With regard to
the much talked of Independent Jewish State, no wiser
words have been written than those in Palestine: The
Rebirth of an ancient People, by Albert Hyamson,
who is a well-known Zionist, in which the author says
in conclusion : —

"The possibility of an Independent Jewish State
cannot be discussed in the course of the present genera-
tion or at any date which either the writer or the
reader can expect to see. Local autonomy is all that
the Jews of Palestine ask — the development of the
system which has already been inaugurated and whose
success has been proved by experience. The Jews
desire no favour as compared with other inhabitants
of the land. They are willing for all the advantages
of a free and liberal government to be enjoyed by all
equally. Thus if Palestine ultimately becomes entirely
— that is to say — overwhelmingly Jewish, it will be-
come so, not by artificial means, but as a consequence
of natural growth."

The thorny problem of the controlling government
cannot here and now be adequately discussed. That

52 THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM

England must make sure of a friendly government in
Palestine, that she may not have over again the bitter
experiences of these years of desert fighting, and com-
mand a securer frontier for Egypt, goes without say-
ing. But England did not go into this war for aggres-
sion, and the measures she has had to take in the
Turkish Empire have, without exception, been forced
upon her.

Palestine has unique claims as the meeting place of
all the Christian Churches, as well as of Christian,
Moslem and Jew. There is much to be said for the
setting up of a protected State with wide powers of
controlling its own affairs by an elected assembly. It
it certain that such a State would require the super-
vision and help of the Powers for some years — till its
organisation and development were sufficiently stable
to enable it to stand alone.

It would be possible and advisable to give the sep-
arate communities considerable power of Internal au-
tonomy, including the power of ecclesiastical bodies
(including under this head, Moslems and Jews), to
adjudicate all questions where their special laws are
concerned, and In any special settlements, such as Jew-
ish colonies, to administer justice In all but severe
criminal offences among their own people, subject to
appeal to a central court.

What the country needs is first a settled and just
government, which should be formed with a view to
eventual independence; secondly, an enlightened and
international sanitary service which shall seek to eradi-
cate the terrible plagues of malaria, black water fever,
which infest some parts of the land, and the specific
infectious diseases; and thirdly, capital in no stinted
quantity to restore to the land something of its former

THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE 53

fertility, beauty and greatness. Such a restoration has
been brought within the range of "practical politics"
by the occupation of Jerusalem by the forces under
General Allenby, and will be secured by the Issues of
a victorious conclusion of the war by the Allies and
America. In Its wonderful history and Its sacred
associations Palestine is a unique land on earth, and
one can Imagine no more holy Ideal Issue out of the
frightful tragedy of these years than to see once again
that land the abode of unity and peace and the glory
of the whole earth.

Important Books of the Day

THE CRIME By a German, Author of "/ Accuse!**

An arraignment in even more cogent form than "I Accuse!" of the
rulers and govenunents of Germany and Austria.

Two vols. 8vo. Vol. I. Net, $2.50

THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL By J. Selden Willmore

A volume which is an invaluable library. An illuminating summary of
the immense documentary literature of the war. 8vo. Net, $2.00

BELGIUM IN WAR TIME By Commandant De Cerlache De Gomery

Translated from the French Edition by Bernard Miall

The authoritative book essential to an understanding of the history, the
position and the sufferings of the country that will not die, the title of
the Norwegian and Swedish editions of this famous work set up under
fire. Illustrations, maps and facsimiles. 8vo. Net, $2.00

THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME By John Buchan

"Mr. Buchan 's account is a clear and brilliant presentation of the whole
vast manoeuver and its tactical and strategic development through all
four stages." — Springfield Republican. Illustrated. 12mo. Net, $1.50

THE LAND OF DEEPENING SHADOW By D, Thomas Curtin
Revealing the Germany of fact in place of the Germany of tradition;
telling the truth about Germany-in-the-third-year-of-the-war.

12mo. Net, $1.50

I ACCUSE ! O'AccusE!) By a German

An arraignment of Germany by a German of the German War Party.

Facts every neutral should know. 12mo. Net, $1.50

THE GERMAN TERROR IN FRANCE By Arnold J. Toynbee
THE GERMAN TERROR IN BELGIUM By Arnold J , Toynbee

"From the facts he places before his readers, it appears conclusive that
the horrors were perpetrated systematically, deliberately, under orders,
upon a people whose country was invaded without just cause. — Phila-
delphia Public Ledger. Each 8vo. Net, $1.00
TRENCH PICTURES FROM FRANCE By Major WiUian* Redmond, M.P.
Biographical Introduction by Miss E. M. Smith-Dampier

A glowing book, filled with a deep love of Ireland, by one of the most
attractive British figures of the war. 12mo. Net, $1.25

WOUNDED AND A PRISONER OF WAR By an Exchanged Officer
The high literary merit, studious moderation and charming personality
of the author make this thrilling book "the most damning indictment of
Germany's inhumanity that has yet appeared." 12mo. Net, $1.-25

THE GERMAN FURY IN BELGIUM ByL.Mokveld

"Some of the most brilliant reporting of all times was done by a few
quiet individuals. Among the men who did the most brilliant work,
Mokveld, of the Amsterdam Tijd, stands foremost."— Dr. Willem Hen-
drik Van Loon. Net, $1.00

MY HOME IN THE FIELD OF MERCY By Frances Wilson Huard

MY HOME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR By Frances Wilson Huard
The simple, intimate, classic narrative which has taken rank as one of
the few distinguished books produced since the outbreak of the^^aj.
Illustrated. Each 12mo. Net, $1.35

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Publishers New York

PUBLISHERS IN AMERICA FOR HOPPER & STOUGHTON